As he goes through the interview period with prospective NHL free agents that started yesterday and runs through noon tomorrow, at which time the market opens, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli is not handcuffed by the fact that star goalie Tuukka Rask is unsigned.“I feel confident that we’ll get a deal done on Rask in short order,” Chiarelli said during a conference call yesterday to discuss free agency. “So I’ve got a placeholder number in there that I can work around as far as (salary) cap (space).”

Chiarelli’s main priority will be to execute a game plan that makes up for the loss of Nathan Horton and Jaromir Jagr, who are both unrestricted free agents, on the right side of the forward depth chart. Horton already told the B’s he is going to test the market, while the team told Jagr after the season they would not re-sign him. Chiarelli said he has considered “circling back” to revisit the idea of bringing back the 41-year-old Jagr in light of Horton’s decision.